


Sunset

by vidnyia



Series: Jearmin Week 2019 [3]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Day 3 - Summer Nights, First Kiss, Jearmin Week 2019, M/M, Sasha being a legend as always
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-08
Updated: 2019-08-08
Packaged: 2020-08-12 23:44:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20164597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vidnyia/pseuds/vidnyia
Summary: A fun night on the beach with friends is turned on its head when Jean and Armin suddenly become the only two that can make it.





	Sunset

The sun was just beginning to set when the train pulled up to the small station and the people began shuffling off. It wasn’t a train station at all, really, just a spot to get off with a small ticket booth and a couple of benches, all outside. Armin waited impatiently behind the people on the train, standing up on his tiptoes, trying to get a glimpse of his friends waiting on the platform. 

But the only person he recognised there was Jean. 

Armin swallowed, his heart fluttering a little. It wasn’t like being alone with Jean was  _ bad, _ it was just easier when everyone else was there and he didn’t have to worry - he could just cling onto Mikasa and watch Jean from the distance as he bickered with Eren, or goofed off with Sasha and Connie. But they were nowhere to be seen, and he was alone with the guy he’d been crushing on for years now. 

“Where are the others?” Armin asked awkwardly, not looking up at Jean as he made his way over to him. 

“Hell if I know,” Jean said, scratching his neck. He fished his phone out of his pocket and showed Armin the group chat they were all in, where a string of texts from Jean had gone unanswered.

“They might not have any signal,” Armin said, a little confused. They’d planned to meet here specifically, but his train  _ had _ been delayed, so… “Maybe they’re waiting at the beach?”

“No harm in going down to find out,” Jean said, and started walking down the narrow cobblestone path to the road, Armin falling into step a little behind him. It was a long walk down the hill to get to the beach, and it was so steep the journey back always took twice as long.

Armin hoisted his bag up onto his shoulders a little higher and walked quickly to keep up. It was like Jean forgot how long his legs were sometimes. He didn’t mind the rush, though; he was always excited to see the ocean, even though he’d been a hundred times since moving down to the coast for university. 

It never got old, Armin thought, as they turned the corner and the sea finally came into view. His breath hitched, and he didn’t notice the way Jean looked at him as he stared out at the water. From all the way up the hill, the shoreline seemed to stretch out to each end of the horizon, as far as the eye could see. The sun was just starting to dip below the water, casting a brilliant streak of orange along waves that slowly rolled towards white sand. Armin couldn’t wait to feel that sand between his toes. 

“Can you see them?” Jean asked, peering out at the people down on the beach, and while he was distracted, Armin finally let himself get a good look at him. 

He looked. Well, Jean  _ always _ looked good, but tonight… especially so. There was something about the way his hair was growing out that Armin really liked, something about the clothes he was wearing that fit just right, something about  _ him _ that made it impossible to tear his eyes away. 

“Armin,” Jean said again, turning around to see if he was listening, giving Armin barely enough time to wipe the dumbfounded expression from his face.

“Uh, yeah?” Armin replied hastily, pushing his glasses up and acting like he hadn’t almost been caught staring. He hoped Jean didn’t take that the wrong way, and he turned away from him to make sure he couldn’t catch him blushing too. 

“I said can you see them down there?”

Armin squinted down at the people as they walked, unable to make out enough about them to determine if they were his friends or not. 

“Can’t tell,” he said, shrugging. “We’re too far away.”

“I should have guessed that, Four Eyes,” Jean teased, finally realising that he needed to hang back a bit so Armin could keep up. 

“Don’t you need glasses too?” Armin asked, cocking an eyebrow and looking up at him. He knew Jean did. He looked really good in them, but he was stubborn about it. 

“Only when I’m reading.”

“Ah, that must be why I never see you in them,” Armin teased back. 

This wasn’t so bad, Armin thought. He wasn’t tripping over his words or being weird, and the way they were throwing banter back and forth felt natural and fun. When they got down to the beach, Armin instantly took his shoes and socks off and Jean pulled out his phone to text the others.

Armin scanned the beach, searching for his friends. The beach volleyball team was practising, and a group of music students were sat around with guitars outside the restaurant, but other than a few couples dotting the beach there was nobody else to be seen. 

“They’re not here,” Armin said, a bit confused, pulling his own phone out of his bag to check the chat, but he wasn’t getting any signal. He was with a different provider to Jean, who usually got at least a few bars down here. “Are they saying anything?”

Jean furrowed his brows as a message popped up, confused. “Sasha messaged. She just said  _ ‘have fun’ _ . What the…?”

He wrote out another message, and Armin leaned over his shoulder to see what she said back. 

“They’re... not coming?” He blinked, confused, and read the text again. His eyes weren’t playing tricks on him - everyone else had suddenly cancelled, coming up with various excuses, leaving Jean and Armin alone on the beach together… at sunset. 

“Apparently not,” Jean said quietly. They caught each other’s gaze for just a moment, holding eye contact for a second before looking away. 

Armin’s heart was beating really fast. All night? He could handle the walk down to the beach, but  _ all night? _ But this - this was romantic! 

“What shall we do?” Armin asked, still looking down at the sand. “We could make it back up in time for the next train if we walked fast…”

“Fuck this, I’m staying,” Jean said, setting off down the beach to find a good spot to set up. “You’re not going, are you? So what if they don’t come? I thought you liked the beach.”

“I do!” Armin protested, having to jog a little to keep up with him. “I just… you know. I didn’t want to make it weird.”

Jean stopped in his tracks and looked down at him. “Why would it be weird?”

“I don’t know!” Armin lied. It was weird to hang out alone with your crush like this when it clearly wasn’t a date. 

Jean reached into his backpack and pulled out a blanket, inviting Armin to sit down next to him. Armin did so, awkwardly. The couple centimetres between them felt like no space at all, yet at the same time like they stretched out to eternity. 

“It’s pretty,” Jean said, nodding towards the ocean. 

Armin hummed in agreement, stealing a look at him. “Yeah, it is.”

His mind was racing as they sat there talking, thinking back to how his friends had been recently, and if anything was off. Sasha  _ had  _ been oddly giggly and secretive recently, now that he thought about it. She was constantly giving Armin looks he didn’t understand and laughing about it with Connie. There was something off about the way everyone had been unable to come without letting them know before, too. And that text…  _ have fun. _ It was almost like…

“ _ Armin,”  _ Jean said, nudging him with his shoulder. The physical contact made him jump a little. “Were you listening to anything I was just saying?” 

“Yes…?” Armin offered with a sheepish grin. 

“That’s a no, then,” Jean said, sighing. “I was just asking if you wanted a drink.”

“You know I don’t drink, Jean. Thanks, though.”

“I never said it had to be alcoholic,” Jean said, standing up. “Do you want a cup of tea?”

“It’s fine, you really don’t have to get me-”

“Watch our stuff,” Jean said. “I’ll be right back. You don’t take sugar, do you?”

“No,” Armin relented, letting Jean go to order them some drinks. He never normally drank tea this late, but if he didn’t want to fall asleep on the beach, it would probably be a good idea. He watched Jean as he walked away, wishing he wasn’t such a coward. This would probably be the perfect opportunity to tell him how he felt, wouldn’t it? He knew Jean was bi, he didn’t have to worry about that. Armin just… couldn’t work up the courage to tell him. He always faltered in situations like this, where he wasn’t sure of the outcome. What if he confessed, and it went wrong, and the whole friendship group became awkward?

The waves slowly rolled up and down the beach, and Armin used the sound to try and centre himself a little more and stop getting so worked up. It was just Jean and him on the beach on a beautiful summer night watching the sunset together. It was fine. They hung out all the time. Not like this, never like this, but it was fine. 

Armin hadn’t even realised how much he was shivering until Jean came back and handed him the drink.

“Thanks,” he said through chattering teeth, holding on to the takeaway cup with both hands, trying to warm up a little. Armin felt the cold easily. Now that the sun had almost sunk fully into the sea, there was a slight chill in the air, even though it was mid-June. 

“You cold?” Jean asked like it wasn’t obvious, shrugging off his jacket before he sat down. “Take this.”

Armin blushed again. “No, no, it’s alright. You’ll get cold.”

Jean didn’t argue with him and just placed the jacket around Armin’s shoulders. “I’m fine, I’m not gonna get cold. Not all of us are weird like you.”

Armin rolled his eyes when Jean sat back down beside him. Gone was the small gap between them now; Jean had made himself comfortable right next to Armin and their shoulders were touching, making Armin’s stomach flip. The coat was heavy and warm, and it smelled like Jean. He stopped shivering, the jacket and tea doing a good enough job to stave off the cold. Tucking his hair behind his ear, he looked out at the beautiful sunset, happy that he got to share a moment like this with Jean. 

They talked some more, about Armin’s grandfather, and studying, and the project Jean was working on for his summer class. When the ocean finally swallowed the sun, the moon cast down a pale white glow that rippled on the water with the waves. The stars always shone brighter away from the town centre, too, and Armin could pick out patterns normally obscured by light pollution. 

“I was thinking,” Jean said after a little while, turning away from the view to look at Armin. His voice was oddly quiet, more so than usual. 

“That’s a first,” Armin smiled, teasing, a slight shine in his eyes. That earned him a scoff and a poke to the shoulder from Jean. Jean never got annoyed when Armin teased. Armin was the only person who could really get away with it. 

“Hilarious,” Jean said. “But no. Don’t you think the others have been acting kind of weird recently?”

“Yes,” Armin agreed. “Sasha especially.”

“Right? She’s been laughing her head off every time we mentioned our plans for tonight.”

“It’s like none of them really planned on coming at all,” Armin mused. 

“My thoughts exactly.”

“But what I don’t get is  _ why _ ,” Armin said, leaning back a bit and taking another sip of tea. He started to ramble. “We were all going to have fun tonight. Not that this isn’t fun, that wasn’t what I meant to say at  _ all,  _ I just thought they would have wanted to join, you know? It’s not like we ever have a bad time down here, everyone likes the beach, I mean who wouldn’t-”   
  
“Armin,” Jean said flatly, looking him right in the eye. “I think they were trying to set us up.”

“Oh,” Armin said, completely stopping in his tracks, blinking. “ _ Oh. _ ”

A couple of seconds passed where Armin just looked at Jean like an idiot, trying to process what he had just said. 

“You didn’t put that together?” Jean teased, sounding as confident as ever, but when Armin looked up he could see how much he was blushing, even in the low light.

“No,” Armin said, his mind still racing. Why wasn’t Jean more upset about this? Was he that easy-going? “No, I didn’t consider that.”

Nobody knew he liked Jean; he hadn’t told a single soul. So why…?

“The idea isn’t  _ that _ bad to you, is it?” Jean asked. If Armin didn’t know him so well, he wouldn’t have been able to detect the hint of insecurity in his joking tone. 

“I never said that…” Armin murmured. He couldn't believe he was really admitting this. “What… what about you?”

It was Jean’s turn to be speechless. For a moment they just stared at each other, their faces unusually close to each other, eyes wide and searching for a hint that this was what the other wanted. 

“I wouldn’t mind.” Jean’s voice was barely a whisper, uncertain until he saw the look on Armin’s face, seeing the reciprocation of his feelings. 

Armin wasn’t sure which one of them bridged the gap, but suddenly they were kissing, not caring that they were in public, just beyond happy that this was  _ finally _ happening after so long. 

Armin broke off after only a few seconds, a laugh bubbling from him with the sheer  _ relief.  _ He put his hand over Jean’s, the adrenaline making him a lot more confident. 

“I didn’t know you felt that way,” Armin said, his smile stretching from ear to ear. 

“I didn’t know  _ you _ felt that way!”

“Did you tell anyone?”

“No, did _ you?” _

“No, so how did the others…?”

Jean shrugged. “I wasn’t exactly  _ subtle _ about how much I like you…”

Armin blushed even harder, hiding his face behind his hands for a moment. 

“We should probably thank them,” he said, his voice muffled by his palms.

“Yes,” Jean laughed, putting his arm around Armin and pulling him closer. “Yes, we absolutely should.”   
  



End file.
